Oct

22

Opening Prayer from the Mass of Blessed Timothy Giaccardo

October 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

God our Father,
you sustained the life and apostolic work
of Blessed Timothy, priest,
with your radiant Word
and strength-giving Eucharist.
By the help of his prayers,
may the instruments of social communication
be used rightfully in promoting the good
in the Church and in the world
and help effectively in spreading the Gospel everywhere.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Oct

6

Our Father Saint Bruno

October 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

“Our Father Saint Bruno: this title does not raise thoughts in our
minds of lengthy doctrine nor of elaborate teaching but rather the
existence of a mature master who allowed himself to be seduced by the
goodness of God and gave everything up for its sake. He has little
else to tell us except his life in the desert where, in silent vigil,
the pure gaze of love wounds the beloved’s heart.”

~Father General of the Carthusian Order.

From a sermon about St. Bruno given by the Father General of the
Carthusian Order at their General Chapter in 1983. It was given in
conjunction in with the celebration of the ninth centenary of the
founding of the Order in 1083. The sermon can be found on pages 13-15
of “The Wound of Love”.

Oct

5

Sign of the Cross

October 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The reverent forming of the Sign of the Cross in the Carthusian manner.

One of the first things a Postulant learns in the Charterhouse is the Carthusian Sign of the Cross: following the most ancient custom of the Church, the little finger and ring finger of the right hand are joined together and bent down to touch the thumb, leaving the index finger and the pointer finger joined together in an outstretched upright position. (This forms the ancient Christogram IX XC with the fingers: the little “pinkie” finger being the I, the ring finger and thumb being the C, and the index and pointer fingers forming the X.)

When tracing the cross on the body, the hand in this finger position first strikes the above the forehead, then drops slowly and solemnly below the navel, then strikes the outside of the left shoulder, and finishes by striking as close to the outside of the right shoulder as possible. This make a rather large cross on the mass of the body, expressing the total involvement of the body in the blessing, protection and work of the Holy and Life-giving Cross, through which Joy has come into the world.

Oct

4

Carthusian Prostration

October 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The Carthusian Prostration happens during Mass from the beginning of the canon to the end of the canon, and during the thanksgiving after Mass. One gets down on the floor, laying on the right side, and supports oneself up on the right elbow, slightly twisting the upper body to the left so that the left hand can be joined with the right hand folded in front of the body, and the head tilting down slightly over the hands. It is easier to do on a step or on a kneeler than on a flat surface, although it is done in the Charterhouse on the floors of the choir stalls on either side of the Church. (All Charterhouse Churches are solemnly consecrated by a Bishop, as are all the private mass chapel altars.)

Oct

3

A Deeper Longing: The Liberation of Desire in the Dark Night

October 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment

“Drawing from a number of contemporary philosophical and psychological sources, she [Constance Fitzgerald OCD] described the dark night as ‘a purification of the spirit,’ and not as a direct experience of God, but rather an experience of our inability to grasp God’s presence. She noted that our attempts at experiencing God are burdened by negative memories and patterns of expectation of both God and prayer. Our memories are ‘obsessed with the past.’ Because these memories can color our meaning of the present and future, what is needed to free and purify our desire is an experience of an emptying or an annihilation of memory. This process requires detachment from everything that lodges itself in our memory and stands in the way of the future. Through this ‘deconstruction of memory,’ theological hope is completely liberated from the past and calls us towards the future, a future from which God comes. Independent of any personal achievements or accomplishments, this hope leads us to deeper levels of love through the experience of self-dispossession.

Sr. Fitzgerald described one manifestation of this experience as a ‘prayer of no experience.’ This phenomenon, which she has observed in persons who have sustained immense spiritual discipline over a long period of time, occurs when after years of faithful and attentive prayer, one arrives at a state where nothing is experienced in prayer. A state beyond any normal spiritual ‘dryness,’ it has been described as an experience of a ‘darkness of God.’ However, it is during this precise state of darkness that the self is ‘being worked on,’ that ‘God is working on us from the inside out.’ Contrary to modern understandings of depression, in which the goal for treatment is the restoration or the rediscovery of self, the prayer of no experience seeks the dismantling of self with no hope of reconstructing the self of memory. Indeed, theological hope lies in the understanding that the lost self will never be recovered. In this way, apart from self and expectation, we can yield to God’s future and its possibility.”

~ excerpt from an article by Terrence Zecha